


till that world ends

by metonomia



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Book/Movie: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 07:59:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19825864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonomia/pseuds/metonomia
Summary: the worldgives youso much painand here you aremaking gold out of itthere is nothing purer than that - rupi kaur





	till that world ends

**Author's Note:**

> for my Lucians

_Up went the ring, flashing in the sunlight, and caught, and hung -_

_-_

As they sail away from Aslan’s Table, Caspian is brave. 

“I didn’t know, but Edmund said, the ring-“ he hasn’t practiced what he wants to say, and more and more speaking sense to Lucy feels impossible. He can’t reconcile how he was drawn to Ramandu’s daughter with the way he feels for Lucy. 

He takes a deep breath. “Edmund tells me that hanging a ring is an old Narnian vow. I didn’t know that when I offered it, but I wanted to tell you that I’d do it again now that I know.” Is he making any sense?

Lucy frown of confusion smooths into a sudden and bright smile, and her hand reaches for his. She’s done this before, casually, and it still makes his heart thud and stomach jump in painful hope. All the self-confidence and friendly joy he felt when she came aboard all those months ago has drained away to awkward, breathless desire. 

“I only turned it down because I figured you didn’t know the custom,” she says. “But since that island I’ve hoped.”

“I think I’ve failed you,” he stammers. “I think I promised the star’s daughter something, too.”

“I know how this journey will end,” she says, “and it won’t be with us together. I can’t wish you anything but happiness, when I know I will leave you.”

-

In Aslan’s country, they part having said all that can be said, and mourning all they didn’t have time for. Lucy buries her face in the golden fur and weeps with joy and sorrow, and she knew how it would end, but she has to fight not to hate him.

-

In England, after a loud and happy dinner at the Professor’s house, Lucy is brave. 

“Tell me again about Caspian when he came to the school,” she asks Jill and Eustace. Eustace, who was so clueless and now pats her shoulder with a knowing furrow in his brow. 

“He was older, of course, but he was so excited to see England, I felt like we were back on the sea at the end of the world.”

Lucy sighs and picks at the black mourning band around her arm. “I’m glad he got his wish,” she says, just a little bitterly. 

“We didn’t have much time to talk,” Eustace says, “but over his sleeve, he was wearing a golden arm-ring. I thought it was funny, it looked so much like the Lord Octesian’s.”

-

Sweeping through the eastern sea, dizzy with the sun and the sweet water. Does she know that she looks like she’s fading into the sunlight?

Caspian is struck with sorrow, and regret. He could order the boat to turn - but the low rumble that precedes a roar fills his mind, and he cannot fight it. Lucy wouldn’t allow him to fight it. 

Even so, the light is playing its endless tricks, and he sees her haloed, and around her arm he sees a ring of light —

-

And he is dying, he knows it, with Liliandil gone all these years, and Rilian lost. He feels his heart giving way, a tingling pressure moving up his arm, tightening, reminding him of promises he didn’t know how to make and couldn’t keep, and love so bright it was worth all the pain. 


End file.
